Amyloid fibrils are aggregates of normally soluble, innocuous proteins whose deposition is associated with a group of diseases known as amyloidoses. Conditions mediated by the presence of amyloid fibrils include Alzheimer's disease, inflammation-associated amyloid type II diabetes, bovine encephalopathy (BSE), Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (CJD), scrapie and primary amyloidosis. Fibrillogenesis or fibril formation has been monitored in vitro using a combination of turbidity, light scattering and fluorescence measurements yielding both equilibrium and kinetic information. For additional material regarding transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, infectious and noninfectious amyloids, subacute spongiform encephalopathies, and prions, refer to B. Chesebro et al., "Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies: A Brief Introduction," in Fields Virology 2845-2850 (Third ed., B. N. Fields et al., editors; Lippincott-Raven Publ., Philadelphia, Pa. 1996); D. C. Gajdusek, "Infectious Amyloids: Subacute Spongiform Encephalopathies as Transmissible Cerebral Amyloidoses" in Fields Virology 2851-2900; S. B. Prusiner, "Prions" in Fields Virology 2901-2950; L. W. Heck "The Amyloid Diseases" in Cecil Textbook Of Medicine 1504-6 (20th edition, J. C. Bennett et al., editors; W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, Pa., 1996), and the references disclosed therein; these references are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.